Managing vast quantities of audio, image/picture, and video files for use as source material in compositions is a challenge to musicians, artists, video editors, and so on. Finding the right source material in a time-efficient manner such that the creative process is not disrupted is challenging.
In addition, over time, artists naturally find source material that works well together or they create new derivative material based on existing source files. However, remembering the relationships between the materials is also a challenge.
The file system for most computers forces artists to arrange source material in one manner or “facet”: a hierarchical arrangement of folders and file names. If artists wish to categorize a particular media file in multiple ways, they have to waste valuable disk space by making duplicate copies in multiple folders. Maintenance of multiple copies becomes tedious if they are modified or otherwise changed. Hunting through many folders for the proper media file is not time-efficient and can disrupt the creative process and flow of the moment.